6 Arrested as Officers Seize Cocaine Worth $120 Million

Investigators seized 1,248 pounds of cocaine with an estimated value of $120 million and arrested six people at a Riverside home Friday, Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates said Saturday.

The arrests were made late Friday and early Saturday after five days of round-the-clock surveillance, Gates said at a news conference at the Sheriff’s Department, where 22 gunny sacks filled with cocaine were displayed.

Investigators said they also discovered five empty containers during the raid that were apparently used for cocaine, prompting them to suggest that the suspects had recently sold an enormous amount of the drug. “We probably missed another 5,000 pounds by a few days,” said Gates, whose officers participated in the investigation. “If we had gotten that, the total street value would have been about $700 million.”

The seizure was the largest in history for the Orange County Regional Narcotic Suppression Program. It also was one of the largest ever reported in Southern California, where thousand-pound cocaine stashes are becoming less and less uncommon. Thirteen months ago, Los Angeles and Orange County authorities confiscated 1,784 pounds of the drug, worth an estimated $500 million, and arrested 11 suspects in what they called the state’s biggest cocaine case.

Arrested Friday and Saturday were Mario Fernandez-Kincade, 39, and Lourdes Fernandez-Kincade, 43, both Cubans from the Miami area, and Marco Antonio Castro-Ontiveros, 43, of San Ysidro. All were held at the Orange County Jail without bail.

Also arrested were Herman Garcia, 43, Patricia Martinez Garcia, 37, and Gabriel Garcia Ceballos, 23, of the Riverside house where the seizure occurred. Herman Garcia was held without bail, and the others were held in lieu of $500,000 bail each.

Customs special agent Joseph Charles said the surveillance started Monday, prompted by a tip from U.S. Customs to Orange County authorities that Mario and Lourdes Fernandez-Kincade, who were staying at a hotel near Disneyland, were suspected of being in Orange County to deal in drugs, Gates said.

Officers saw the couple making numerous calls from pay telephones and purchasing cardboard boxes, Gates said.

On Thursday, the couple, driving a 35-foot motor home, left for a rendezvous with Castro-Ontiveros.

The helicopter officers watched the couple “getting off the freeway, stopping in the middle of the freeway to watch the cars, driving through tract homes and shopping centers,” apparently trying to elude them, Gates said.

Officers followed the motor home to a Riverside hotel, where the couple met Castro-Ontiveros and switched vehicles with him, officials said. He was driving a small foreign car.

Officers followed Castro-Ontiveros to a house at 8641 Cypress St. in Riverside, where they reportedly saw him using a wheelbarrow to load large burlap sacks into the motor home, officials said. At this point, he again exchanged vehicles with the Miami couple.

Police stopped the motor home and Castro-Ontiveros’ car a short distance from the house. After spotting what they believed to be cocaine in the motor home, authorities obtained search warrants for the motor home and house.

Gates said investigators discovered the cocaine inside a hollowed-out stack of particle boards. Five other such stacks were empty, which led them to believe that more cocaine may have been stored at the house at one point.

In addition, authorities said they found $22,000 in cash during the pre-midnight raid.